The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-07-09
editorial 8riets
BY REV. I. N. ATWOOD, D. D.
Canton, N. Y.

IT was the emphatic opinion of Presi-
dent Garfield, that Mark Hopkins was the
greatest and wisest man he ever knew.
His enthusiastic admiration was express
ed on one occasion ip these terms: ST
would rather dwell six months in tent
with Mark Hopkins and live on bread
and water, than to take six years course
in the grandest brick and mortar univer-
sity on the continent" This is oratorical
rather than exact; but it is forcible way
Of putting the truth, so generally over
looked, that great and wise instructors
and not buildings and apparatus, are
what give value to university education,
We had long admired and honored
Mark Hopkins as one OF the greatest of
our educators and profoundest of our
thinkers. But it was not until we had SUBJ
jected him to the severe test of daily ex-
animation of his philosophical and ethi-
cal doctrines in the class room, that we
really took the measure OF his large orig
inal and discriminating mind. He was
one Of the very few masters of these great
departments of thought. His metaphysic,
his logic, and his theory of human char
acter have stamp of originality. At
the same time they are marked by sobrie-
ty and consistency. They have the unity
and sweep of a comprehensive view; and
they bear the strain of criticism and of
practical application, which is their Gre
Dental of truth.
Here is a sample OF the sort of Tract
Society twaddie which now gets into the
editorial columns of the once vigorous
and rigorous Independent.
"We live but one life in this world, and
that one life is succeeded by endless ex-
istence hereafter. What we shall be in
that endless existence, as to the question
OF happiness or misery is, according to
the teaching of the Bible, determined by
the moral character we acquire in this
world and with which we pass into the
next life. The wicked, says the Saviour,
shall go away into everlasting punish
ment. but the righteous into life eternal.'"
"A Boston lady, of abolition anteced-
ents, after a sojourn of several years in
the South writes that, "the South is hap
pier than the North; people here are
less restless, less gosded by competition,
and envy, and there is purer democra-
cy, fewer social lines founded upon mere
ly external advantages" We can we'll
believe this To person Of culture and
sober views of the real good of life,
society not yet invaded by the money
getting and place-getting spirit, must
have unusual charm. In the North and
Northwest the fever OF Success" RACES in
every large town and it's infection is felt
even in the remotest rural districts Hap
py life Is an unembarrassed and unanx-
ious life; Of that we have too little.
The strain of the baccalaureate SER
mons may be taken, we judge, as fair
index of the dangers with which culture
is now threatened. at least, the sermons
show clearly what the presidents of our
colleges, generally, conceive to be the
most imminent danger. It is significant
that these discourses intimate, where they
do not distinctly name, the same peril.
1t is the dirt philosophy. Augustine de-
clared that man is worm of the dust, in
order to make more stupendous the sov-
ereignty OF God. It is now said the he is
worm of the dust, and the logic of the
dogma is, that he is as little concerned
with God and with divine things, as other
worms of the dust are. Secularism in
business is matched not counteracted by
materialism in culture.
The four chief universities of Scot
land have received each bequest of
100000 from the late Lord Clifford, q
distinguished judge, to found lecture
ships in natural theology. Judge Gifford's
purpose appears to have been to promote
the study of the Divine Being, rather
than to support any special view. He
gives these magnificent sums to defray
the expenses of the most elaborate stud
les calculated to increase the knowledge
OF God, "the Infinite, the All, the First
and only Cause, the One and the Sole
Substance, the Sole Being, the Sole Re.
ality and the Sole Existence" His belief
is that such knowledge is the means of
mans highest well-being. and he thinks
a university cannot be better employed
than in bringing the thought and re-
search of the wisest of mankind on this
high theme, to the knowledge of the
world.
The conditions attached by Lord
Clifford to his bequests are admirably
adapted to secure the end he had in view.
II one wishes to know all that can be
known on this subject, he must get all
the testimony. Not theists alone, but
every grade OF skeptics must be sum-
moned. The Christian theologian and
the agnostic; the religious enthusiast and
the unsentimental msterialist, must equal
ly be listened to if one would be fully in.
formed. Not that every one who talks
on such subject will throw light on it;
but because We can never know who it is
that darkens counsel by words without
wisdom until We have heard the words.
Lord Clifford provides for free platform
and for the fullest disclosure of what any
thinker may be able to contribute. The